"and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." Shantih.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Nextdoor South of Greenwyche

I was recently asked to be a
member of a neighborhood group called Greenwyche South of Drake(Nextdoor).I had some questions about the purpose of
joining this group but I reflected a moment and thought it a good idea.We should have a "North" of Drake group
too that together would comprise the Greenwyche Neighborhood Association.The purposes are not obvious so I would like
to address the advantages of such a community association.

The first thing to note is
that no matter how friendly we are with our neighbors we are not dependent on
them. We are not a village.We are a
group of independent families. Our lives circle out of our neighborhood to our
jobs, activities, churches, schools, and shopping.Most of us typically rely and depend on family members, work
colleagues, fellow church members, city services, and paid service providers. If our neighbors are our friends then of course we rely on them but our proximity does not make us
interdependent, like a normal village would.A village would be an assemblage of mutually supporting interdependencies,
one step up from the household economy, but today, being independent,we have no obvious reason to build closer
dependencies.Building a community is
time consuming and in our current economic environment has not been seen as necessary.“Community” is thus one of those things that
you don’t really need until you need it. Currently we enjoy our freedom.

There is a problem though.I
don’t think “community” can be suddenly turned on when it is needed. Local government at the city council level
encompasses the entire city (all 215 square miles of it), not the neighborhood
level.So the locus of communal action
is the city or county level.In many
circumstances this scope of concern is too large. We don’t necessarily care what is of concern
on the other side of town. Our schools
are here not there.Our
playgrounds need mowing.Speeders endanger
our sidewalk-less streets. What other sorts of neighborhood issues do we face
today? Burglary? Neighbor relations? ( A catchall that could include frequent
parties, barking animals, poor home maintenance). Road maintenance? Utilities( dangerous leaks, loss of service).Land use or property maintenance? Recreation?
Schools? In short, we pay taxes and expect services from the city for life
quality issues.

So what would a community
association do?Is there anything we would like to do jointly that the city
would not be inclined to help us with?Are there any problems BEST addressed at the neighborhood level?I think there could be if we considered
adopting neighborhood goals that fostered greater community and self
sufficiency.What would some of these
goals be? 100% home ownership? Employment for everyone who wants a job? 50% renewable energy with solar? Community watch/policing? Better school involvement from non-parents?
less garbage/waste? disaster preparedness? local currency district, community
gardens?

Right now, at this time, I do
not think there is an overarching need for greater community governance but I
think it would be wise to consider a shadow structure because living locally
and sustainably is an important goal for the future.Globalism and transnationalism have been the
dominant philosophy for the last 30-40 years. I think we are in the process of watching that focus change. Ultimately I think resource
issues will curtail this philosophy of expanding internationalism and then a slow
slide into a de-industrial future will be recognized as having already begun.We are dependent on growth for our current
lifestyle and infinite growth on a finite planet is impossible.When growth stalls, our focus will need to turn to a
more local level.I believe peak oil
represents a fundamental change in our economic system that will necessarily
lead to a new financial normal. If we truly desire to live with as much freedom
as possible, it will be important to have a solid local community.

Paradoxically, large cities and their
anonymity have given people more freedom while local communities have been more
confining, not accepting deviant behavior and demanding adherence to specific
norms.But a Community may be able to
resist a future of atomized individuals ruled through the national State which
could have sharp restrictions on freedom. I could envision punitive taxes.There may be rules for what you can and must
do to support the authorities. The draft is dead but perhaps a mandatory 2
year service in failing schools or in needed areas.

I am expecting a financial
collapse of the current system. I have no real idea of what that means. I expect
bank accounts to be revalued, pensions to be altered, debts forgiven and
payments demanded. This nearly
occurred in 2008 and only massive injections of suddenly created money were
able to stabilize the downturn.Those
issues have NOT been solved and will re-play again leading to financial and commercial collapse or
massive economic changes in the near (2-10 year) future.A broken financial system could mean
widespread joblessness and erratic food and consumer goods supply.

Several years ago we had a
tornado in Northern Madison County that impacted our neighborhood with power
loss for 5 days.Individually we sat
around our radios at 9:00 AM waiting for the mayor to tell us what was going
on.We then did whatever we thought
necessary to improve our situation.We
had a curfew—no driving after dark by order of the sheriff and we bought
generators to power refrigerators and re-connect ourselves to the outside
world.We did not face security
problems—burglaries and the like nor did we have food insecurity issues.The areas around us had power and a short
drive could re-supply most needs.If the
involved service area had been much wider, this favorable condition may not
have applied.We were also graced with
perfect temperate weather, no heating or cooling was necessary. If the grid is
down for longer then the 5 days we experienced, then many, many problems become
immediate and critical.Refrigeration.Heating/cooling.Cooking.Water.Food availability.If banks and
money are shut down, nothing will be like it was.Old prices are no longer meaningful.The ATM moment occurs when cash does not come
out of the machine.Credit/debit cards
are just useless plastic.Could this
happen?It did happen in 2008 in several
countries. We would look to government
to fix it.And then we may not like ‘the
fix’.Like stranded Katrina survivors we
would be waiting for someone to rescue
us.In some cases, that did not work out
well. ….

Greenwyche neighborhood can
be defined as all the houses whose occupants leave the neighborhood by Drake
Ave or Garth Rd.Cedarhurst is a small subset.
From Robin Lane to Downing to Appalachee to Chandler around to Toney.Nextdoor has included only the homes SOUTH of
Drake but we should encourage a North of Drake group that includes the hill
country people on Downing, Barcody, Hickory
Hill, Chandler, and Stonehurst.This would
include all the people in the shadow of Monte Sano.Jones Valley pool, people, and environs is another
community.

So now that we know who we
are, what sort of community are we?I am
going to think out loud about it.If
everyone was encouraged to join this group we could establish the structure
(online) of direct democracy where all issues of concern to the neighborhood
were brought up for consideration, discussed, and codified. A village of 1,000 homes is too large for everyone to know everyone else. Dunbarton's # suggests that people can "know" approximately 150 other people well. We would know everyone with one degree of separation. We would need a representative system perhaps organized by blocks.

We already have a
local government and it is a reasonable question as to what exactly a neighborhood
group is organized to doWe can exchange
lost dog info and warn of burglars and car thieves but I think the mostpractical purpose is to encourage community
awareness and foster local decision-making institutions.We all work together to control the problems
of living together.Philosophically, the
need for community organizing is really only necessary when larger government
entities do NOT provide for the general welfare.Ifeveryone is happy with how life is in our community then we do not need
to utilize this proposed “shadow” neighborhood system. But if conditions at a
larger level fail and our circumstances are deteriorating, then we will want
the protections of a well organized local community.